Using Blackboard Collaborate (Elluminate) on Ubuntu

Like it or not (personally I am in the second category) Blackboard Collaborate or Elluminate (as it is still more commonly referred to) is something you have a hard time avoiding if you work in online education.

I discovered that I have audio issues on some Ubuntu Linux machines and found the following to fix the issues.

1) Install alsa-aoss

apt-get install alsa-oss

2) Save the Elluminate Java Webstard (.JNLP) file to a local folder – DO NOT OPEN IN BROWSER
3) Launch Elluminate using this command (in the folder you saved the JNLP)

1) This assumes you are already running Sun (Oracle) Java JRE not the default OpenJDK as apparently Blackboard Collaborate does not play nice with the default OpenJDK. I have described the install on 11.10 here.

2) Make sure you have updated the alternatives for javaws (install only sets the java alternatives).

and then a window popped up saying: Unable to launch application. Details:

CouldNotLoadArgumentException[ Could not load file/URL specified: meeting.jnlp]
at com.sun.javaws.Main.launchApp(Main.java:332)
at com.sun.javaws.Main.continueInSecureThread(Main.java:248)
at com.sun.javaws.Main$1.run(Main.java:110)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:662)
and in Wrapped Exception:

java.io.FileNotFoundException: meeting.jnlp (No such file or directory)
at java.io.FileInputStream.open(Native Method)
at java.io.FileInputStream.(FileInputStream.java:120)
at java.io.FileInputStream.(FileInputStream.java:79)
at com.sun.javaws.jnl.LaunchDescFactory.buildDescriptor(LaunchDescFactory.java:460)
at com.sun.javaws.Main.launchApp(Main.java:312)
at com.sun.javaws.Main.continueInSecureThread(Main.java:248)
at com.sun.javaws.Main$1.run(Main.java:110)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:662)

@leogaggl: Thanks for the info mate, however, even using aoss wrapper didn’t help me. However, changing sampling rate for both microphone and speakers helped a lot. Initially, there were both set to 44KHz, but then after changing them to the lowest setting at 8KHz, my audio was continuous.. These settings can be found inside Elluminate/Collaborate -> Tools -> Preferences -> Audio.
There you will find both.

Greetings from the Central Valley! First of all, thanks for your post. It is very useful. I use Ubuntu 11.10 and when on Elluminate, the slides don’t show. I see the whiteboard, the participants, and I can interact with the moderators but again, no slides transition. Any idea why?

Thank you for your solution, audio works well with the wrapper, but it fails to detect my web camera.
Dropping the sampling rate to 8000 Hz fixed the issue and now I have working audio and recording.
Thank you Abhi!